1. Field of the Invention
Word games represent an important sector of games and puzzles, and have been around for many years. Crossword puzzles and Scrabble are examples of popular word games. The popularity of such puzzles is based, in part, on the challenge they present to a player. Further, word puzzles are a fun way to enhance a player's language skills. Most word games are presented to players either on paper, or in the form of a board game using letters as playing pieces. Recently, few word games have been implemented using electronic devices that are programmed to provide the functionality of a known word puzzle, or to provide new word games.
However, to the inventor's knowledge, none of the electronic word games has taken advantage of the computational capability and versatility of microprocessor based devices. Recent innovation in microelectronics makes it feasible to construct more challenging, versatile and cost effective word games, using commercially available micro-controllers or microprocessors.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for improved word puzzles that combine traditional word games with logical steps that would make such word games more interesting and challenging to players. Accordingly, this invention provides an electronic board game, or hand held word game, based in part on the popular “form-a-word,” “find-a-word” and/or “circle-a-word” games, and incorporating a novel logical methodology for making these games more intriguing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Classical word games such as “Find a Word,” and “Form a Word” are well known in the art, and can be played using pencil and paper, or as a board game with alphabet playing pieces as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,252,323, 5,100,150 & 5,520,394, and as also used in Scrabble. U.S. Pat. No. 4,438,932 describes an electronic word game that employs a pictorial illustration of the anatomy of a person on gallows to help a player discover the spelling letters for a word selected by another player. Other electronic word games are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,921,864, and 6,116,604.